I was pretty disappointed to find that we were back to Miranda's (was that her name?) viewpoint with this book. I think I might have preferred a 3rd person POV. I found out from the blurb that the 1st 2 books characters were going to come together somehow in this book. The romance was disappointing - there wasn't enough build up to make it exciting or romantic (or even especially believable) and there wasn't exactly a friendship that blossomed into more either. I suspect that part of the limitation was in the POV, the way this story was told by the character's recording what happened in her diary. Or maybe it was just badly handled. Matt morphed into an unlikable character too, and Syl seemed to exist to irritate the family and then provide the crucial info at the right moment. I was hoping we would at least get some back story on her, surviving without family or home. There were the barest hints that she'd done anything necessary to survive - latching on to anyone who would feed her and keep her around. But not enough. Once again there wasn't much of a genuine post-apocalyptic story to any of this - people traveling on the road, cooperating? Did no one try to attack anyone else and steal their stuff, shoot them and eat them? really? No one had organized themselves into gangs to hoard goods/meat/weapons? No one was kidnapping people to stockpile a future meat supply? The whole thing just lacked everything that made The Road and the Ashfall series terrifying as well as compelling. Ashfall starts with a very similar disaster scenario and shows young people struggling to survive in a much more realistic way, and gives them many more challenges to face, and results in a much more compelling story all around. I didn't hate this "Last Survivors" series while I was reading it - it was reasonably enjoyable for the most part. But it was just disappointing to reflect on in the end. And especially when I considered it in comparison to Ashfall I realized how little it had to offer. The third book in the series was the literary equivalent of flipping your readers the bird (pardon my language), since it's dedicated to readers who want to know more of the story. I got the impression that the author just doesn't like her characters very much and was eager to leave them as hopeless and pathetic as possible. Ugh. Definitely do not recommend and if you see these on your teenager's reading list for school or something you might want to read them first so you can be aware of what's going on.
What do You think about This World We Live In (2010)?
Whoa! Was not expecting that ending! What a GREAT series...really enjoyed them!
—mindy
Not a satisfying ending to the series! But overall it was good.
—cza
